Time seemed to stop as Draco watched his baby daughter tumble in the air. He felt the air circulating around the hairs on the backs of his hands. He heard a dog barking somewhere far off. He could smell the aroma of their dinner still lingering about the kitchen. Everything seemed to be unreal.
NO!
With a snap, Draco's instincts kicked in. "Accio Maia's clothing!" he shouted and flung his arms out toward the falling infant, his magic flooding the house as he ran toward the stairs. With his next indrawn breath, Maia's sleeper wrenched toward him, flying back up, and narrowly missing the railing, thankfully bringing the body inside its velvet folds with it. The baby landed in his arms with a small cry. Had she been any further away, Draco knew her clothing would not have held. There were several rips along the seams due to the material's rapid change of direction to his arms. Verifying that the child was safe, Draco looked back at Harry with a growl.
Harry was ducking and Draco's vision was filled with cloth as all of Maia's sleepers and outfits flew out of her room and over Harry, hitting Draco and knocking him down, covering him. He held the baby tight as the small weight of the material settled on him. But the faint sound of running feet had him quickly struggling free. When he looked for Harry, he saw that the brunet was gone.
"Harry!" he roared. He could not fathom ever being so enraged. With a bitten off curse, Draco scrambled to his feet and cautiously listened. There was only silence and the soft sounds of Maia's breathing and her occasional whimper. Draco held his daughter close as he silently slipped down the hallway. He peered into her darkened room, but no scent or sign of Harry could be found. Quickly, Draco placed Maia back into her crib. "I'm sorry, my love," he whispered. "Stay here and be quiet, will you? I have to go kill your dad!"
"Don't ever let that happen again," Maia's eyes seemed to say.
"I won't, love. I will never let you be hurt!" he whispered fiercely. Leaning down and quickly kissing her soft forehead, Draco knew in the very depths of his soul that Maia was his. Harry could tell malicious lies, but he could never make Draco believe that he wasn't Maia's father.
Draco's eyes nearly glowed in the dark as he quickly moved out of the baby's room and shut the door. "Compingopactum!" he rasped out and sealed his daughter's room with the strongest ward he could conjure. The magic snapped into place like iron bars and Draco turned with murder in his eyes. He would find that bastard and kill him. It was his right. To endanger his child, his young, merited the penalty of death whole-heartedly.
Listening with every step he took, Draco focused everything he had into hunting Harry down. He searched each of the bedrooms and, finding nothing, he stepped down onto the stairs. Stalking silently below, he used his vantage point of height to search the hall and what bits of the kitchen and dining room he could. Finally, he reached the bottom and, again in a sick replay of their game the other day, went into the sitting room. Everything was still, but Draco's instincts told him that this was where Harry was hiding.
A flash of movement was all he caught before a book came flying at his head, which Draco batted away as he ducked in time to avoid the armchair that came sailing at him a second later. It crashed into the wall, creating a large hole. The blond growled and reached for the legs that ran past him as he lay on the floor. He wasn't fast enough, but he quickly surged to his feet and chased after. He stopped right before a dining room chair came crashing through the doorway.
"You think you are so mighty, do you?" Harry snarled and leapt at Draco. The blond grabbed him just before the fist could connect to his face. He spun around and threw Harry down. The brunet was growling and showing his teeth in a show of aggression. Draco grabbed him by the arm and punched the smaller man in the face as he brought him up, causing the wire rim glasses to go flying. Blood ran down Harry's face but he kicked viciously at Draco's knees, causing the blond to go down. Harry was on top of him, hands around his throat, but only for a moment as the two men rolled on the marble floor, desperately trying to gain an advantage. Finally, after knocking the side table over, Harry grabbed at the silver vase and brought it down hard on top of Draco. Draco blocked it and the room echoed with the sound of his bone breaking. His left arm was useless, but he used Harry's precarious position sitting on top of him with his hands full of the vase and bumped up to unseat the brunet. Draco then kicked hard, landing a blow to Harry's abdomen. Harry gasped desperately in an effort to breathe as Draco quickly stood and grabbed Harry by the hair with his good hand, dragging the spitting scrambling man behind him.
